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"there is never a day that you are more thankful for life than the day you almost died"
-anonymous

song to listen to: in the end by tommee profitt ft. fleurie & jung youth

warnings: mentions of blood, death, gore, weapons, swearing, kissing, swearing some more, screaming, breaking down, a lot of shit, expect a lot of descriptions of gore from here on out. okay? y'all know what to expect at this point.

~~~~~~

I mopped a messy line of Sam and I's watered blood down the hallway I usually took to get to my art class. Never in a million years would I think I'd be doing such an insane thing, but here I was. From the entrance near the principal's office to the art wing, I trailed behind the mop of our blood all alone. The flickering lights only made the regularly creepy school turn into a legit horror movie. Normally, I'd kill to go back in time right now so I would still be watching Edward Scissorhands with my sleeping father. Waiting for Mom together. But right now? Right now, I would kill just to stay alive.

Footfalls sounded in the distance, and something deep down told me that it was Tommy Slater, masked and axed, ready to strike anybody down. I figured I should run now. And so, I did just that, kissing Simon quickly before crawling under the stall door that I knew Sam was in. She was terrified, probably more terrified than I was. We knew the game plan, we knew what we needed to do. Maybe our role wasn't as important as everybody else's, but we still mattered. We had to matter. If not both of us, then at the very least, Sam's life had to matter. I would die for her, and I don't even car that she might not be willing to die for me.

"Are you okay?" I asked Sam, being sure to keep my voice a steady whisper.

"I," she took a shaky breath. "I don't wanna die."

"You won't, Sam. I won't let that happen."

Ruby's voice entered the bathroom in an eerily way. The first of the stall's doors slammed open. Sam began to climb into the vent. The stall next to us was slammed open. Sam's body wriggled her way into the vent. Tommy's feet stomped his way to our stall. Just as I started to climb up, Tommy busted down the stall door.

"SAM!" I cried out for help as he grabbed my ankle, but she wasn't in any set position to help me, the vent barely had enough room for the two of us.

And that's when something entirely out of the ordinary occurred: without me even kicking, Tommy's hand slid off of my ankle. Without any hesitation, I jumped out of the vent, nearly landing on Sam. Luckily, I didn't, otherwise Deena would probably be mad at me.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Sam shouted as I stood there shocked by what just happened.

Why did Tommy let me go?

The lighter sparked, Deena dropped it into kerosene, and only five seconds passed before the bathroom burst into flames. It was fine until the possessed killers began to scream in pain. Death by fire. They were being burned alive. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying that doing so would stop the memories of Rose Peters being burnt at the stake. I clutched the fire extinguisher to my chest as their screams became more desperate, and then an explosion went off. Their screams ceased. I felt guilty. Did they really deserve that?

"Come back from that, motherfuckers!" Simon bragged to their dead body gunk as we extinguished the remaining fire.

It was a disgusting sight, to be completely honest. The rest of them were laughing, but I found myself incapable of even putting on a fake smile. Something didn't feel right about this. This was way too easy to have gotten away from without a single scratch. A single fly buzzed around my head, and I swatted it away. The now dead fly landed smack dab into some killer body gunk. The black gunk was moving into three big piles, but nobody seemed to realize. I bent down in front of one, and just before I went to say something, it formed into a hand.

"HOLY SHIT!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, slipping on the bloody mess and hitting my head.

"RUN!" I don't know who said it, but with Simon picking me back onto my feet, we all took off like we were on the track team. This impromptu track team of ours ran into the nearest classroom, which happened to be a chemistry lab. Simon slammed the door, Sam and Deena dragged the teacher's desk in front of it.

"Come on, they're coming!" Deena urged as we helped to push the desk into place.

"They're gonna keep coming!" Kate's anger was different than it had been before.

"We're fucked!" Simon screamed, and Kate shook her head.

"No, no! We are not fucked! She's fucked. They're coming for her." Kate looked Sam dead in the eyes. "And so is Jen. If we put Sam and Jen in the hall, we end this now."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" I snapped, standing to only put one foot of distance between myself and Kate. 

"You're a monster." Deena hissed, also coming towards Kate.

"I'm being reasonable!" She defended herself, and I shook my head, starting to laugh. "We can't run anymore. A bullet won't stop them, fine. They're really strong. But we just tried to goddamn explode them, and that didn't work! Why the fuck are you laughing, Jen?"

"I'm laughing at how fucking stupid you are. You really think we won't put up a fight? Or if not Sam, then at least I won't put up a fight? I was raised by a cop, a doctor, and a survivor of another massacre. I'm not going down in my fucking high school, not without a fight. So fine, Kate, if you're sick of this, if you're so sick of running, go back home, cry to mommy. But me? I'm not quitting, I'm not gonna lie down and die. We're gonna end this tonight-"

"No, this only ends one way-"

"You're suggesting killing her, for Christ's Sake, Kate!" Deena shouted, but I knew she wasn't talking about me.

"You know, that's not exactly what she's saying-" Josh started, but I slapped him across the face.

"Stay out of this," I hissed to him. "Just because you fucked her doesn't mean you have to defend her."

"You're on her side, seriously?" Deena only looked at her brother for three seconds.

"You'd let us all die to protect her, okay? Look at this. Okay, all of this." She took the clippings out of Josh's backpack, slamming them down on the counter one by one. "Dead. Dead. Dead! This is the way. It's the only way. Sam and Jen, you-you've gotta go."

"Kate, you can't be serious," Simon's disbelief would haunt me forever.

"Are you kidding me?" Deena's voice was shaking with sadness, despite the anger in her face.

"Kate's right." Sam was trying her damnedest to be confident. "I don't want you guys to die for me. I'm going." She wrung her hands together, and I began to shake my head. "I'm ending this."

"No, you're not!" Deena had tears in her eyes as she walked over to her lover, and I walked over to mine.

"Si, I'm gonna go," I whispered, cupping his cheeks in my hands. "I'm gonna go, I have to. I don't want to, but I'm go-"

"No, no Jenny, don't-don't, don't do this, you can't do this."

"I'm gonna go down fighting, though. It'll be fine. You'll survive." I pressed our foreheads together, and Sam and I began to walk out the doors in sync.

But I stopped right in front of Kate.

"I might be going out right now, but it's not for you. I'm not getting myself killed for a fucking traitor." I hissed pure venom to whom I thought was my best friend, and the tears in her eyes showed little remorse.

The door clicked into it's locked position once Sam and I stepped into the red-lit halls. I pulled a gun out of its hiding place beneath my shirt. There had to be another way. But what way would that be? Tommy started to speed-walk down the hallway. His breathing grew louder. His axe started to raise into the air. I took Sam's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"How did your aunt survive?" Rosette's voice screamed inside my head.

Hands grabbed at Sam and I, and just as Tommy brought his axe down, we were pulled back into the classroom. Both of us had let out screams of our own. Straight out of The Shining, Tommy began to hack through the door.

"C. Berman. She's the key." Josh's words scared me.

"No, no don't. We aren't bringing her into this-" I begged them, but nobody heard.

Sam began to read from the articles, but I was now too busy on helping Simon keep Tommy from breaking in. Shit was happening, they tried contacting Auntie Z. Deena said she wasn't answering. Tommy's axe went straight through the door, only centimeters from going through my skull.

"We need some help here!" Simon cried out for help. Kate ran over. "This shit is not gonna hold!"

There was too much room. The axe had cleared too much room. The same moment that realization set in, Tommy grabbed my hair, and I screamed for help while trying to push him off myself. My head banged against the door twice. And then, same thing as before, he let me go.

"Jen, what about your aunt, how did she survive?!" Deena called out to me amidst the chaos, but I just shook my head.

"Nobody knows! She doesn't know who brought her back! That's part of the whole Mysterious Mia act!"

And then we got out just as Tommy got in, escaping through one of the 'suicide proof' windows. Did I know why? Nope. Did I know where we were going? Nope.

"ARE WE ALL STILL ALIVE?!" Kate shouted as we ran to wherever we were going.

"Are you shitting me? I'm a goddamn cat!"

~~~~~~

so close to the end of '94

what do you think jen's full survival chances are throughout the entire book?

are we excited for 1666?

are we excited for answers?

i'm close to finishing this book and tbh i'm kind of sad about it

don't forget to spam me with comments

i'm talking to you silent readers who don't even vote